Thursday, July 7, 2016

Not too long ago, I participated in the Florida Room Challenge and I showcased a natural, beach inspired bedroom, so naturally when Big Chill contacted me to participate in their Color of the Month Challenge, I knew I had to create something to go along with that bedroom! It's so much fun to create boards to see what would look great together and fit a theme. My house right now is mostly black, white and pink, with industrial and farmhouse elements. It has been this way since we moved in about 4 years ago! I am SO ready for a change, but of course redecorating one room takes a lot of moolah, let alone an entire house! So, in the meantime, I'll just keep daydreaming about redecorating and putting together boards so when I can redecorate, I will!

No true dream kitchen would be complete without some Big Chill Appliances. If you are not familiar with the brand, they specialize in colorful, efficient, GORGEOUS, and functional kitchen appliances. If you have browsed the "Home Decor" section on Pinterest, I have no doubt that you have spotted their refrigerators, stoves, and dishwashers in many homes. They are even in the homes of Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore, Miranda Lambert, Rachel Ray, and Jeannie Mai!

These are the kitchens that dreams are made of! I love when all the appliance match, but I love it even more when one is the focal point. The black and gold! The retro white! The turquoise! I mean, they have them in any color you could think of. It's probably a good thing I can buy any of them now, because I would probably end up buying one in every color because I love them all!

So here is the board I created to go with my natural, beach inspired bedroom! I wanted to keep the same elements and still have the design be light and airy and incorporate the varying colors of the ocean and driftwood.

Monday, July 4, 2016

There is a photo challenge circulating on Facebook where you share, side by side, the first photo and the most recent photo of you and your significant other. It's a sweet way to see how far you have come. And it got me thinking.

As I flipped through FB photos and pictures saved on old, nearly obsolete flash drives, it made me sad...

Not sad as in my life is pitiful and pathetic, but more like sad...that time is passing so quickly. We have met and married, we have lived such a full life together already. We have shared the amazing blessing of having a child and the extreme privilege of watching him grow up. We have a five year old. A FIVE YEAR OLD. We have loved and fought and supported each other and we have clung tightly together through sadness, illness and even the loss of loved ones.

As we come up on our 7th wedding anniversary, I feel more terrified than ever. Maybe it's my anxiety speaking or who knows, maybe my thyroid is trying to tell me to adjust my meds, but I'm scared. I'm scared when things are going so well, that it could all be gone in a second.

I'm terrified I'll forget the moments that matter and that in a few short years, my son will be so grown up that he won't need me anymore.

I'm terrified because the things I value in my life mean EVERYTHING to me. And the even scarier thing is that I wouldn't change it for anything.

Being scared means I have things in my life worth having. It reminds me of the quote, "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard" (yes, thats a Winnie the Pooh quote). I'm not saying goodbye to anything, but I feel like the quote applies. I feel so blessed to have the life I have.

So I'm going to sit and reminisce in this blog post about the life I have with my family and how blessed I feel to have them.